Bad Grammar pop lyrics

March 4, 2008 10:14 PM

Please: I would like a bazillion examples of popular music lyrics and song titles that would make an English teacher cry out in empathetic pain for their abuse of grammar.

Examples:
"I can't get no satisfaction" (Satisfaction - Rolling Stones)
"No I cannot forget from where it is that I come from" (Small Town - John Mellencamp)

I'm not terribly familiar with rap, hip hop (etc.) but I'm guessing that anything from those genres would just be too easy.

posted by spock to media & arts (89 comments total)

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)
posted by epimorph at 10:20 PM on March 4 [1 favorite]

Bobbie Sue took the money and run.

Your friend and mine, Steve Miller.
posted by ScarletSpectrum at 10:21 PM on March 4

Who do you love?
posted by hydrophonic at 10:22 PM on March 4

Keren Ann's "For You and I":

And it's over now for you and I
For you and I
It's over now for you and I
For you and I
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 10:32 PM on March 4

Not grammar per se, but in Fergielicious:
T, to the A, to the S-T-E-Y, girl, you tasty
posted by srrh at 10:33 PM on March 4

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate

Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, but of course Hendrix mangled the object and subject better.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 10:40 PM on March 4

If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar. — The Doors, "LA Woman"

(Funny, Jim also sings "for you and I" in "Touch Me.")
posted by knave at 10:44 PM on March 4

"The Reason" by Hoobastank was getting a fair bit of airplay a few years back:

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you...
posted by teraflop at 10:53 PM on March 4

Wannabe?
posted by bettafish at 11:41 PM on March 4

There's a band named "As I Lay Dying"
posted by lain at 11:43 PM on March 4

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)

"in which we're livin'," I always thought. Though it never stopped me from snarking.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:48 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

"Songs she sang to me, songs she BRANG to me"

Play Me - Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 12:49 AM on March 5

Baby I'm A Want You - Bread
posted by Cosine at 12:51 AM on March 5

"Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand"

Fernando - ABBA
posted by Cosine at 12:56 AM on March 5

My favorite grammatical error in any song is

'Going faster miles an hour'

in Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers. I laugh every time.

'Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love seat'

in Loser by Beck
posted by clearly at 1:00 AM on March 5

"Don't Know What The Hell I Got" Pagliaro
posted by Cosine at 1:02 AM on March 5

"Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad" - Derek & The Dominos

"What's Love Got To Do With It" - Tina Turner
posted by Cosine at 1:04 AM on March 5

"and we got nothing to be guilty of"

Guilty - Barry Gibb & Barbara Streisand
posted by Cosine at 1:05 AM on March 5

"She's Got A Ticket To Ride" Beatles
posted by Cosine at 1:06 AM on March 5

"We Don't Need No Education" - Pink Floyd
posted by Cosine at 1:06 AM on March 5

"I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor" - Arctic Monkeys
posted by Cosine at 1:10 AM on March 5

"there ain't no place I'm going to"

Mr Tamborine Man - Bob Dylan
posted by Cosine at 1:13 AM on March 5

"What If God Was One Of Us" - Joan Osbourne
posted by Cosine at 1:14 AM on March 5

'I'm thinking about my doorbell / When you gonna ring it?'

My Doorbell by The White Stripes
posted by clearly at 1:15 AM on March 5

"Not Fade Away" - Buddy Holly
posted by Cosine at 1:15 AM on March 5

"...and this bird you cannot change..."

Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd
posted by parkerama at 1:21 AM on March 5

"Once, it was once long ago."

Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 1:22 AM on March 5

What has love got to so with it -> What's love got to do with it

and

She has got a ticket to ride -> She's got a ticket to ride

are both ok (and I don't care. my baby don't care)
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:24 AM on March 5

"The boat that I row won’t cross no ocean"

Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 1:24 AM on March 5

"...and each one there has one thing shared
They have sweated beneath the same sun
and wept when it was all done
for bein done too soon..."

Done Too Soon, Neil Diamond
posted by parkerama at 1:24 AM on March 5

"Captain Sunshine, make me drink wine,
Make me feel fine when I'm feelin' wrongly down."

-Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 1:26 AM on March 5

"I got a song been on my mind"

Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 1:28 AM on March 5

"Her words as such as the way they were sung it was the way they were sung"

Neil Diamond
posted by Cosine at 1:30 AM on March 5

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)

People are always parroting this mishearing. The real words are: "But IF this ever-changing world in which WE'RE LIVING / Makes you give in and cry" i.e. fine grammatically and "Makes you give in and cry" actually makes sense.
posted by cincinnatus c at 1:37 AM on March 5

"If I was a sculptor
But then again, no" (Bernie Bernie Bernie tsk tsk)

-Elton John (Bernie Taupin)
posted by Cosine at 1:41 AM on March 5

"Leaving was never
my proud"

-REM
posted by Cosine at 1:43 AM on March 5

"You keep lyin' when you oughta be truthin'..."

Nancy Sinatra, These Boots are Made for Walkin'
posted by parkerama at 1:54 AM on March 5

"You talk about things that nobody cares...
...You can't catch me 'cos the rabbit gone died"

Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith
posted by parkerama at 2:01 AM on March 5

"I Got Tears In My Fro Cause I'm Standing On My Head Over You"

-anyone???
posted by Cosine at 2:02 AM on March 5

I know this isn't technically incorrect, but the last line is so incredibly clunky and twisted (anything to make that rhyme!), I think it earns a spot here:

"Its no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov"

Don't Stand so Close to Me, The Police
posted by parkerama at 2:11 AM on March 5

"The female of the species is more deadlier than the male" from the track "Female of the Species" by 90's indie-chancers Space
posted by patricio at 2:11 AM on March 5

1. It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing.
2. From Blues In The Night: "My Mama done told me, ..."
3. Is you is or is you ain't my baby?
5. Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.
posted by RussHy at 2:34 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

"Oh, you don’t mean nothing at all to me" - Nelly Furtado
posted by jontyjago at 2:59 AM on March 5

Prince has a lot of these:

"Dig if you will a picture of you and I engaged in a kiss" -- from When Doves Cry

"Every time she said the words another one of his doubts were gone" -- from Joy in Repetition

"I anticipate a few turbulence along the way" -- from International Lover
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:15 AM on March 5

"Lovin' is what I got" - by Sublime from the song, "What I Got." I know "got" can be used in grammatically correct sentences, but here he's using it as a substitute for "have."

The song title "Doowutchalike" by Digital Underground is a horrible mis-spelling.
posted by christinetheslp at 3:49 AM on March 5

Dylan - Lay Lady Lay. Most people forget that that is a horrible solecism.
posted by TheRaven at 4:20 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

"Don't Chew" as in..

"Don't you forget about me.."

Not really a grammar thing but almost every popular singer will sing "Don't chew" instead of "Don't you". Listen for it and you'll start to hear it all the time. Pops up in alot of songs. It is the way I tell if a singer has had professional training because any voice teacher worth his salt will stop that right away! Drives Me Crazy!!!
posted by pearlybob at 4:41 AM on March 5

Search lyrics.com with the term "ain't."

Sample hits:
Tupac, "I Ain't Mad at Cha"
Marvin Gaye, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
Garth Brooks, "Ain't Goin' Down 'til the Sun Comes Up"
Etc.

And don't forget...."This ain't no party/This ain't no disco/This ain't no foolin' around" from Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime."
posted by MonkeyToes at 4:43 AM on March 5

"I wish I would have met you" from "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter (Wish I HAD met you, dammit! And you can even make it fit the music with the more awkward but still correct "wish that I had met you"), but that's an error I hear people make all the time. It bugs me because they get other grammar in the song correct ("those who were right there" etc).

"Whisper on a scream, doesn't change a thing, don't bring you back" (which he corrects to "doesn't bring you back" later, which always makes me smile, since it's like a little knowing wink to traditional bad pop grammar) in "Blue on Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd.
posted by biscotti at 4:48 AM on March 5

So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I

- Paula Cole, "I Don't Want to Wait"
posted by Lucinda at 4:49 AM on March 5

Stan Freberg once cleaned up "Old Man River":

Elderly man river
That elderly man river
He must know something
But he doesn't say anything
He just keeps rolling
He just keeps rolling along

He doesn't plant potatoes
He doesn't plant cotting [sic]
Because these/them/those that plants them
Are soon forgotting
Elderly man river
He just keeps rolling along
posted by futility closet at 5:08 AM on March 5 [1 favorite]

America: Horse With No Name:

In the desert you can remember your name
cause there aint no one for to give you no pain
posted by BozoBurgerBonanza at 5:11 AM on March 5 [2 favorites]

This song is really popular right now -- and would make any English teacher pass out. Just the title makes me squirm.

Timbaland - The Way I Are

I ain't got no money
I ain't got no car to take you on a date
I can't even buy you flowers
But together we be the perfect soulmates
Talk to me girl
posted by Nerro at 5:44 AM on March 5

I love the way in Sam Cooke's A CHANGE IS GONNA COME (which he sings as 'change gon'h come') he pronounces 'ever' as 'ev'ry': "Just like the river I've been running ev'ry since"
posted by unSane at 5:59 AM on March 5

Bobbie Sue took the money and run.

Your friend and mine, Steve Miller.
posted by ScarletSpectrum

And, in that same song, rhyming "Texas" with "facts is."
posted by johnofjack at 6:04 AM on March 5

It's subtle, but most later versions of Hard to Handle (including the well-known Black Crowes version) switch a subject pronoun to an object pronoun:

"I can love you better than he"/"I can love you better than he can" (in the older verisons)
became over the years:
"I can love you better than him"
posted by aswego at 6:19 AM on March 5

Elvis Costello, "Oliver's Army":

Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way

posted by kirkaracha at 6:20 AM on March 5

Gwen Stefani changing the grammatically correct lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof in "Rich Girl."

Every time she sings "If I was a rich girl" I want to punch something.
posted by desuetude at 6:29 AM on March 5

k.d. lang, "The Mind of Love"

I'm trying hard to ex-cape this
Constant pull towards ache

Technically a pronunciation error, but still gets me every time.
To say nothing of the infamous no-caps name, of course. She still has the chops.
posted by laconic titan at 6:52 AM on March 5

Is rap cheating? If not, Jay-Z, 99 Problems... pretty much every line, but particularly:

Now I ain't tryin' to see no highway chase with Jay.
Plus I got a few dollars I can fight the case
So I pull over to the side of the road
I heard "Son do you know what I'm stoppin' you for?"
...
99 Problems but a bitch ain't one
If you havin' girl problems
I feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one
posted by ewiar at 6:58 AM on March 5

Ain't Nothing But a House Party--J. Geils
posted by Melismata at 7:26 AM on March 5

She popped her a pill o' ex
And drank on some orange juice
And just when you thought she was freaky she done got super loose

One of my favorite lines from "Sippin on Some Syzurp" by UGK & 36 Mafia



I actually used 99 problems once in one of my English classes, (it was one on one, and he was 18) there's a great site that translates slang from popular music into normal English for ESL teachers like myself
posted by Slash_fan at 7:27 AM on March 5

The most worstedest ever: Kelly Rowland, on how "her life was stole."
posted by kittyprecious at 7:27 AM on March 5

"Don't Take it Personal" -- Monica
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 7:27 AM on March 5

I don't practice Santeria (ok)
I ain't got no crystal ball (whoops)
I had a million dollars (ok)
but I, I'd spend it all (wait... what?)

Santeria, by Sublime

Also:
Johnny Butt was a man with a real strong will to survive

The Ballad of Johnny Butt, also by Sublime
posted by owtytrof at 7:53 AM on March 5

Reading through these, I keep wanting to distinguish between songs that use *wrong* grammar, and ones that are normal grammar in non-standard English. (Especially Black American English, what with that having a pretty special place in Rock and Roll)

To my mind, “I can’t get no statisfaction” isn’t a grammar mistake. It’s just a double negation of the type used in African American Vernacular English. (And don’t let your grade school teacher tell you that double negatives are somehow illogical- they’re the norm in lots of languages).

On the other hand, I don’t think “I cannot forget from where it is that I come from" is correct anywhere.

It seems like an important distinction. You have to be a pretty uptight language prescriptivist to be riled by the use of Black American English in rock music.

(I also want to distinguish actual “wrong” grammar from creative poetic constructions like “going faster miles an hour”, but I’m guessing that’s a pretty fuzzy line)
posted by ManInSuit at 7:55 AM on March 5

Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo - "I knew we was falling in love"

I saw a program on PBS a few years ago all about songwriters from the early 60s, and Ellie Greenwich discussed how mortified she was that the line was sung so ungrammatically.
posted by frecklefaerie at 8:01 AM on March 5

(oops - that last link should be "double negatives")
posted by ManInSuit at 8:12 AM on March 5

Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
posted by Pronoiac at 8:12 AM on March 5

What Man In Suit said. I don't count "ain't" as wrong whatsoever. It's certainly not proper formal written English, but it's perfectly acceptable slang.
posted by desuetude at 8:28 AM on March 5

It don't come easy. Ringo Starr
posted by Oriole Adams at 8:36 AM on March 5

About half of these aren't incorrect at all. Certainly not this one:

Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way

Here's one that's always bothered me, especially considering the source. From "The Soldering Life" by The Decemberists:

But I
I never felt so much life
Than tonight
Huddled in the trenches
posted by ludwig_van at 8:36 AM on March 5

Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
posted by porn in the woods at 9:25 AM on March 5

If I ever become fabulously wealthy, I will commission famous musicians to cover songs that abuse the subjunctive, correcting the error and thereby eliminating the "it sounds weird" argument.

Creep by Radiohead
"I wish I was special" (wince)

New York City by They Might Be Giants
"Wish I was there" (cringe)

But there are hundreds of examples. In fact, the only one in popular culture I can think of is:
"I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner..."
posted by Gucky at 9:26 AM on March 5

A couple of months ago a TA in my sociology class used
"And I'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket" (Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry)
as an example of what not to do.

Honestly, I'm not enough of a grammar whiz to articulate why you're not supposed to do that, but I know she used that lyric.
posted by Quidam at 9:33 AM on March 5

There's a band named "As I Lay Dying"

What's wrong with that? "Lay" here is the past tense of "lie," which is used intransitively, so that's correct, and "Dying" appears to be a participle, modifying "I." Looks fine to me.

I don't practice Santeria (ok)
I ain't got no crystal ball (whoops)
I had a million dollars (ok)
but I, I'd spend it all (wait... what?)

I've always heard the last line as "but I, I spent it all."

Oh, and I know you didn't ask the opposite question, for unexpectedly correct grammar where a lot of people would get it wrong, but in that vein I can't help but mention The Fifth Dimension's "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," including the correct lines "I lay awake and watched until the morning light/Washed away the darkness of the lonely night."
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:36 AM on March 5

Some of these don't seem wrong at all. For example, what's wrong with "...and this bird you cannot change"?

Was "As I Lay Dying" bad grammar when Faulkner used it?
posted by dixie flatline at 9:42 AM on March 5

Not a grammar error per se, but there's a local band here called Mad Trucker Gone Mad.
I still chuckle when I see their name.
posted by Rykey at 10:06 AM on March 5

Some of these don't seem wrong at all. For example, what's wrong with "...and this bird you cannot change"?

Was "As I Lay Dying" bad grammar when Faulkner used it?

Yeah, I'm not getting WHY people think some of these are wrong.
posted by peep at 10:13 AM on March 5

Give my request to the DJ
Cos my song he's gotta play

From Jennifer Lopez's 'Play'.
posted by ardinno at 10:14 AM on March 5

Because it should be "like a child misses his or her blanket." But how does that fit into a song lyric.
posted by notjustfoxybrown at 10:14 AM on March 5

REM's "Get Up" features the line "I've seen you laying pined." Unless that's some sort of colloquialism, it really should be lying. Even then I'm not sure it makes sense.
posted by peep at 10:19 AM on March 5

What's that one song the Traveling Wilburys do? Wriiten by Bob Dylan, refrences a bunch of Springsteen titles? You know, "When the walls...come tumbling down..."

There's a lot of pronoun issues in there, like "before he was a Jersey Girl".

(Too lazy too look up title or lyrics right now)
posted by attercoppe at 11:15 AM on March 5

How can Oliver's Army be singular and plural?
posted by kirkaracha at 12:10 PM on March 5

kirkaracha, army is a collective noun and thus can be either singular or plural depending upon context. I believe Mr. Costello is making a point.
posted by desuetude at 1:50 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]

Artistic license:
Billy Joel: Don't "Aks" Me Why (in the last verse)
Bob Dylan: It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Bob Marley "Redemption Song": Old pirates, yes, they rob I / Sold I to the merchant ships / Minutes after they took I / From the bottomless pit.

Probably unintentional:
Creed: What's This Life For?
The Doors "Touch Me": Till the stars fall from the sky, for you and I
posted by edverb at 5:07 PM on March 5

Gucky: If I ever become fabulously wealthy, I will commission famous musicians to cover songs that abuse the subjunctive, correcting the error and thereby eliminating the "it sounds weird" argument.

You could just do this at karaoke. I've pictured doing that for the Joan Osbourne, Gwen Stefani, & Shaft theme.

I've also fantasized about taking a red sharpie (or Post-It, maybe?) & correcting the grocery store signs to "10 Items or Fewer." I think I could do this if I dress as a ninja, get a friend to follow me with a camera, & tell the store that I'm a grammar ninja for a school project.
posted by Pronoiac at 11:45 PM on March 5

"How Does It Feel" by Oasis always bothers the crap out of me (for lots of reasons really) but mostly because of the grammar:

How does it feel like, to wake up in the sun.
How does it feel like, to shine on everyone.
How does it feel like, to let forever be.
How does it feel like, to spend a little lifetime sitting in the gutter.
Scream out sympathy.

Yargh! (no sympathy!)
posted by h00py at 4:37 AM on March 6

I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger

(The Faces, "Ooh La La")

Should be "I wish that I had known then what I know now."
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:25 PM on March 6